Special Reports

Winter 2010 Life Decisions International vol. xiii no. 1

VIEWING CHILDREN AS SEXUAL BEINGS

by

Douglas R. Scott, Jr.

From its inception, Planned Parenthood greatest ally has been public ignorance of its goals and activities. This has been accomplished through a network of secrecy and clever verbal engineering. (It even claims to support abstinence, but its definition of the term is rather loose.) In an unusually candid report, the International Planned Parenthood Federation has provided a glimpse of the kind of world it seeks to create. And it is not a pretty picture.
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Koenders wrote that many national governments do not view sexual health or rights as a legitimate part of the public duty of care and most fail to even recognize that young people are sexual beings. He claimed the taboo on youth sexuality is one of the key forces driving the AIDS epidemic and high rates of teenage pregnancy and maternal mortality. IPPF states that young people should get comprehensive sexuality education. What does IPPF mean when it refers to young people? IPPF defined the phrase:
As most societies define adolescence and youth in terms of both age and life circumstances, there is no universal agreement on what is a young personThe World Health Organization defines young people as those from 10 to 24 years of age, including adolescents (10-19 years) and youth (15-24 years). IPPF uses the terms young people, youth and adolescents interchangeably to refer to people who are between 10 and 24 years. Defining all people under 18 years of age as a child is often not useful because it ignores the circumstances of youth who are faced with pressures and responsibilities that are usually reserved for adults. Policies and programmes for young people should focus not so much on age, but on the specific developmental needs and rights of individuals as they transition from childhood to adulthood.

Note: This edition of Special Reports includes text that some people may find offensive. Please use appropriate discretion.

he International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is at it again. The group has released yet another report that has ignited controversy. Titled, Stand & Deliver: Sex, Health and Young People in the 21st Century, one should not expect to hear about the revealing report on most news programs. Stand & Deliver begins with a Who We Are section. IPPF describes itself as a global service provider and a leading advocate of sexual and reproductive health and rights for all[that] works towards a world where women, men and young people everywhere have control over their own bodies, and therefore their destinieswhere they are free to choose parenthood or not; free to decide how many children they will have and when; free to pursue healthy sexual lives without fear of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIVwhere gender or sexuality are no longer a source of inequality or stigma. IPPF pledges it will not retreat from doing everything it can to safeguard these important choices and rights for current and future generations.

As you continue to read this edition of Special Reports, keep in mind that every time you read young people, youth and adolescents, IPPF includes 10-year-olds. Cultivating Minds and Bodies: The Building of a Citizen, is a section of the report that describes the indoctrination young people should endure. Amazingly, IPPF claims such programs will help children in an array of other areas as well (emphasis has been added):
Sex and reproduction are central to our lives, this is a basic truth. Here is another: young people are sexual beings. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that sexuality education promotes individual well-being Comprehensive sexuality education is perhaps the single most important gift that parents can offer to their childrenand to adolescents everywhereas they approach the age at which they will begin to have sex.

The sentiments expressed in the Who We Are section were echoed by Albert Gerard Bert Koenders, minister for Development Cooperation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, who authored one of three forewords to the report. Young people have the right to be fully informed about sexuality and to have access to contraceptives and other services, he wrote. These rights are enshrined in various internationally agreed human rights conventions and treaties, butunfortunatelythey are still not universally respected.

Comprehensive sexuality education empowers young people to make informed decisions to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections and unin-

tended pregnancies (and, by consequence, unsafe abortion); it increases self-esteem, thoughtful decisionmaking and negotiation skills; and it helps them to develop satisfying and pleasurable sexual lives.

marriage (although evidence shows this strategy has been ineffective in many settings). The reality is, young people are sexual beings and many of them are religious as well. There is a need for pragmatism, to address life as it is and not as it might be in an ideal world. Each religion or faith must find a way of explaining and providing guidance on issues of sex and sexual relationships among young people, which supports rather than denies their experiences and needs. By highlighting strong values in faiths and religions, and overcoming stigma and stereotypes that religious conventions perpetuate, communities and leaders can help improve young peoples access to sexual and reproductive health information and services, and so improve their health and well-being.

Health providers and governments should also engage community leaders, parents and the general public in sexuality education so they understand how the benefits reverberate throughout young peoples lives, and so they can themselves participate in creating a supportive environment of openness and inclusion.

Stand & Deliver warns against underestimating the power of comprehensive sex education to challenge traditional gender roles It states that while it is important to respect culture, it is only with the active support of key community leaders that culture evolves to reverse harmful attitudes and traditions around adolescence, gender, sexuality and childbearing (emphasis added). In other words, such programs serve to undermine religious and cultural standards that IPPF considers archaic. IPPF demands access to every child, including yours. To reach far and wide, to reach adolescents everywhere, comprehensive sexuality education must be mandatory in school(emphasis added), the report states. The reports Creating Youth-Friendly Services section addressed the need to establish physical sites where young people may go for confidential care. IPPF said that in order for access to be assured, young people must have the ability to obtain services when they are requested, free from administrative restrictions and obstacles and unconstrained by psychological, attitudinal, cultural or social factors. This means parental/spousal consent or notification should not be required and neither cultural nor religious issues should be permitted to impede access. IPPF claimed there is no need to worry about the young people who want such services. According to the report, the evolving capacities of the child include his or her physiological ability tomake informed decisions about counselling and health care, and his or her emotional and social ability to engage in sexual behaviours in accordance with the responsibilities and roles that this entails. In a section titled Faith, Religion and Sexuality, IPPF criticized religion, especially Islam and Christianity, for preventing young people from receiving comprehensive sexuality education (emphasis has been added):
Young peoples sexuality is still contentious for many religious institutions. Fundamentalist and other religious groups theCatholic Church and madrasas (Islamic schools) for examplehave imposed tremendous barriers that prevent young peoplefrom obtaining information and services related to sex and reproduction. Currently, many religious teachings deny the pleasurble and positive aspects of sex and limited guidelines for sexual education often focus on abstinence before
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The same section of the report includes a highlighted statement supposedly made by a young person. Faith and spirituality have their pros and cons. On one hand, it puts up a set of rules and regulations which if followed properly, make you a better person. On the other hand, it curbs growth of some issues which are necessary for the better upbringing of present-day adolescents. Governments have a responsibility to achieve the equitable distribution of power and resources, the report said. With young people as partners, todays adult decision-makers have Young men learn the chance to recast sex and sexuality about birth control. as a positive force for change and development, as a source of pleasure, an embodiment of human rights and an expression of self (emphasis added). Why cant we just let children be children instead of enticing them into experimenting at younger ages than they already are? asked Brenna Phillips of the Daily Titan, the student newspaper of California State University at Fullerton. When I was 10, my main concern was getting home in time to watch Power Rangers. But, unfortunately, Phillips was more concerned about IPPFs frankness than she was with its agenda:
I understand that[IPPF] would like to be the catalyst of the reformation of sexual health education on a global level, but it needs to remember who its audience is when it includes phrases such as, young people are sexual beings and comprehensive sexual education helps them to develop satisfying and pleasurable sexual lives in its international report. Did Planned Parenthood really think that it was going to gain support of religious institutions, such as the Catholic Church, that promote abstinence until marriage? All Planned Parenthood has done is create an adverse affect [sic] and overshadow its real mission of preventing the spread of HIV and promoting gender equality If Planned Parenthood would like the entire world to take it seriously when it issues narratives such as these, it needs to omit phrases that make even the most liberal minds cringe. There are many valid points and staPage 2

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tistics that are included in Stand and Deliver that will now fall on deaf ears.

Phillips is essentially arguing that IPPF should continue to promote its agenda and programs, but should go back to keeping the truth hidden from the public. (There is far less trouble that way.) Nicholas Fortes, a Daily Titan staff writer, took a more pro-IPPF position. Knowledge is crucial for everything and the same is true for sex, he wrote. Not knowing the right way to do something typically means Fortes not doing it right or in the right way. To learn how to write, you must first learn the alphabet. This same idea applies to sex. Teaching childrenabout sex, and equally important, the pleasures of sex, is a crucial part of becoming an adult (emphasis added). Lets review. If children do not get comprehensive sexuality education, they will not know how to have sex and they may do it wrong and, equally important, they will not learn about the pleasures of sex. Fortes must be kidding. Fortes argued that sex education should begin at a young age, but not too young. While he did not define too young, it is clear Fortes does not consider the age of ten to be too young (emphasis has been added):
The 10-year-old mind is one that isnt going to comprehend complex physics or the nomenclature of chemical elements, but it is old enough to recognize adults and their relationships. Teaching sex at an earlier age will also make it easier for children to fight off sexual predation. Knowing how sex and foreplay works provides children with a line of defense from being taken advantage of. It also makes them aware of how other people could be making advances on them and what is and isnt crossing the line.

When I have a childI want them [sic] to understand the benefits and the dangers involved in sexual interacttion, Fortes surmised. Simply teaching a childhow to apply a condom is only going to confuse them more. Sure they know what a condom doesbut they do not understand the emotions, socially awkward situations, and important decsions [sic] that go on before even deciding to use that condom. This statement seems to contradict Fortes claim that children are capable of understanding sexuality-related concepts, but he did not seem to notice. Despite Fortes rather elementary analytical skill, many people will agree. This is largely because most have spent little or no time studying the issue. Opinions are based on gut feelings or a general philosophy. I have a position on nuclear power, but I really know very little about it. Still, at the ballot box, my opinion is given the same weight as those who have spent a lifetime studying the subject. The same is true of most people who take a position on the issues covered in the IPPF report. Such ignorance is understandable, but can have catastrophic consequences when dealing with issues of life and death. Leslee Unruh, president of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, claimed IPPF intentionally ignores the role of parents. She said parents have and should always be the primary sex educators of their children. (IPPF would agree with this statement, but defines primary as first, which is not the same as only or even most important.) Unruh sees a sinister element to IPPFs deeds because it knows that the earlier they capture the childrens minds, the greater the odds the children will adopt their secular world view. She also argued that graphic sex education at a young age is a proven failed strategy that only molests the minds of the children who experience it. Unruh charged that since IPPF is a group whose future relies on funding from failed contraception and abortions, the connection isnt hard to make. She said IPPF has an aggressive political agenda, meant to makemoney. Emmett McGroarty, director of Preserve Innocence, said the report exhibits IPPFs anti-religious, anti-parent, and anti-family bias. He said IPPFs agenda seeks to undermine the role of parents as the principal and primary guides to their children on issues of spirituality, morality and sexuality and is based on an elitist presumption that parents are untrustworthy and incapable of that role and that the state should take over. Preserve Innocence wants a program that respects the sovereignty of the family and the proper place of parents in teaching their children. Writing for New American, Raven Clabough said IPPFs plans will increase the number of young people who are sexually active. If so, it all works out in favor of Planned
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Did Fortes really argue that comprehensive sexuality education is needed to prevent child molestation? He must not believe in psychological molestation. Fortes continued tying to back his opinion (emphasis has been added):
Not allowing pre-pubescent kids the opportunity to learn about sex is taking away from their right to mature. A mature mind is a knowledgeable mind and is one that can make educated decisionsbut the information needs to be made available to allow the mind to mature prior to the physical changes we all experience.

Growing up, if I had the knowledge of sex that I do today, I could have made much better and safer choices. Abstinence-only sex education doesnt work. Kids are going to have sex whether or not we teach them about it and not giving children the opportunity to learn is simply bad parenting.

While grossly ignorant of child development, Fortes is willing to unequivocally label those who do not require their children to get sex education as bad parents.
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Parenthood, however, she wrote. If they encourage sexual behaviors amongst Americas youth, they stand to profit from the inevitable repercussions of increased abortions and use of the morning after pill. One paragraph from the IPPF report pretty much says it all (emphasis has been added):
Tomorrow approaches rapidly, and while much good work is underway, with each year that passes opportunties to reach even more young people are lost. The opportunity to catch them while theyre young[]a truly golden rule when it comes to cultivating mindfulness, healthy behaviours and social valuesis time-bound, and time is running out.

specific steps involved in obtaining and using birth control (including emergency birth control); the correct use of all types of birth control methods; masturbation is both physically and emotionally safe; the importance of talking with a trusted adult (as opposed to a parent) about sexuality; options available to teenagers who are unintentionally pregnant (including abortion); and safe alternatives to sexual intercourse and reasons for avoiding penetrative sex [oral sex, etc.]. Kids in the seventh grade should be subjected to lessons: exposing the difficulties of teenage parenting; regarding places where one may get reproductive health care (including birth control and abortion); about gender stereotyping in pornography; and addressing the reasons why abortion should be universally legal and unrestricted. Lessons for high school years should include: reasons not to have children; recognition of sexual and reproductive rights; stressing that parents should embrace different values expressed by their children; telling teenagers they should advocate for the right to and access to safe abortion; the importance of family planning for individuals, families and society; and where one may access safe abortion care. IPPF credited the Government of the Netherlands for its assistance in preparing Stand & Deliver, as well as The World YWCA, which is listed as an IPPF partner. The North American Man/Boy Love Association is comprised of homosexual men who seek an end to what it calls the oppression of men and [minor] boys who have freely chosen mutually consenting [sexual] relationships. Members of Sex Before Six (SBS) believe children should have sex before reaching the age of six. It is easy to see such groups as existing on the fringes of civilized society (at best). But the release of Stand & Deliver, shows they are not the only groups willing to sacrifice our children to Baal.
Douglas R. Scott, Jr., is president of Life Decisions International and author of Bad Choices: A Look Inside Planned Parenthood
Special Reports, an official periodical of Life Decisions International (LDI), is published four times per year. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of every LDI Partner or members of its Board of Directors/Advisors or staff. This publication may be copied so long as the appropriate citation(s) are included. It may be quoted so long as proper acknowledgment(s) are provided. Write: P.O. Box 439, Front Royal, VA 22630-0009 (USA). Phone: (540) 631-0380. Past editions of Special Reports are available at the LDI website (www.fightpp.org).
2010 Life Decisions International

IPPF would not be concerned if every child were sexually active. Children may do virtually anything, if it does not result in childbirth. Pregnancy is fine; childbirth is not. It is giving birth that IPPF abhors. Everything else benefits its multibillion dollar business. IPPF sees sex education as an investment, but the investment is not in children. It is an investment that will ensure IPPFs existence. Stand & Deliver has reminded many people of a June 2009 report by the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO). International Guidelines on Sexuality Education: An Evidence Informed Approach to Effective Sex, Relationships and HIV/STI Education is in many ways more radical than the IPPF publication. The UNESCO report lists the basic minimum package of subjects and learning objectives forcomprehensive sexuality education. Lessons are broken into four age groups. While IPPF argues that comprehensive sexuality education should begin at age ten, UNESCOs report advocates starting at age five. According to the UNESCO report, lessons that should be taught to children in kindergarten include: recognition and acceptance of different kinds of families, including same-sex; harmful cultural/traditional practices; appropriate names for body parts and their functions; masturbation is not harmful and it feels good; children should be wanted; homosexuals should have the right to raise kids; and how HIV is spread. Starting in the fourth grade, lessons should include: the concepts of homophobia and transphobia; both males and females can give sexual pleasure; ways of preventing unintended pregnancy; health risks of early pregnancy and childbirth;

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